BALMORHEA STATE RECREATION AREA

BALMORHEA STATE RECREATION AREA. Balmorhea State Recreation Area is located at Toyahvale, at the northern entrance to the Davis Mountains on U.S. Highway 290 in southeastern Reeves County. The park, including its large rock-walled swimming pool, was built around San Solomon Springs by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933. The springs, which have been called Mescalero and Head Springs at various times, issue from caverns in the bottom of the swimming pool. The pool covers one and three-quarters acres, is thirty feet deep in places, and has aquatic plants and fish living in its 76-degree water. Before 1933, 950 acres for the park was deeded to the state by private owners and by Reeves County Water Improvement District No. 1. In the 1940s the state legally lost all of the land except the present forty-eight acres.

Prehistoric Indians and Mexican settlers farmed in Madera Valley near the park in early times. In 1583 the entrada of Antonio de Espejo met Jumanos in the Pecos valley who guided them up the Toyah valley to the springs. In 1849 Dr. John S. Ford passed through the Toyah Creek area, noting its productive land and the corn farmed by Mescalero Indians near the springs. After Fort Davis was reoccupied by the army at the end of the Civil War, farmers found a profitable market at the fort for grains, vegetables, and cattle. They irrigated their fields from San Solomon Springs, from which reportedly flowed twenty-two million gallons of water daily. In 1909 the Toyah Valley Irrigation Company was organized to supervise water use. By 1915 Reeves County Water Improvement District No. 1 had built Balmorhea Dam and Lake; later the district donated land for Balmorhea State Recreation Area.

Image Use Disclaimer

All copyrighted materials included within the Handbook of Texas Online are in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 related to Copyright and “Fair Use” for Non-Profit educational institutions, which permits the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), to utilize copyrighted materials to further scholarship, education, and inform the public. The TSHA makes every effort to conform to the principles of fair use and to comply with copyright law.